Workshop on Jiwei Ci’s Political Philosophy

On February 6 (10:00-18:00 PT), there will be a hybrid workshop dedicated to Professor Jiwei Ci’s political philosophy at UC Berkeley. Scan the QR Code in the poster or use this link to register for Zoom participation:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfhG-aRrcDNOWEU7THIJlVlLI_AOHlAFm-rhEOSvmcq9oQsSw/viewform

Prof. Ci recently retired from the Department of Philosophy at HKU, where he had taught for decades. Throughout his career, he dedicates himself to the study of important theoretical questions about agency, morality, and democracy by reflecting upon key issues in contemporary China. His scholarship revolutionizes the way of theorizing Chinese politics through the lens of political theory and intellectual history.

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Online Lecture: How to Produce Learning: Some Preliminary Thoughts on Neo-Confucian Knowledge Culture

How to Produce Learning: Some Preliminary Thoughts on Neo-Confucian Knowledge Culture (1200-1700)

Speaker: Dr. Lianbin Dai, Department of Pacific and Asian Studies, University of Victoria

Moderator: Prof. Nathan Vedal, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto

Time: 2:00-3:30 P.M. EST, Wednesday, February 1, 2023

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David Wong’s new ‘Moral Relativism and Pluralism’ available for free download until Jan 20

Readers of this blog might be interested in David Wong’s new Moral Relativism and Pluralism by Cambridge University Press. It is available to download for free directly from CUP until January 20. If you’re interested, don’t delay!

It’s part of the Cambridge Elements series (specifically, Elements in Ethics), so it’s meant to be a succinct yet authoritative guide to the topic. Here is a summary of the book:

The argument for metaethical relativism, the view that there is no single true or most justified morality, is that it is part of the best explanation of the most difficult moral disagreements. The argument for this view features a comparison between traditions that highly value relationship and community and traditions that highly value personal autonomy of the individual and rights. It is held that moralities are best understood as emerging from human culture in response to the need to promote and regulate interpersonal cooperation and internal motivational coherence in the individual. The argument ends in the conclusion that there is a bounded plurality of true and most justified moralities that accomplish these functions. The normative implications of this form of metaethical relativism are explored, with specific focus on female genital cutting and abortion.

 

New Book: Acharya, et al, eds., Bridging Two Worlds

The University of California Press with support from the Berggruen Institute has published Amitav Acharya, Daniel A. Bell, Rajeev Bhargava, and Yan Xuetong, eds., Bridging Two Worlds: Comparing Classical Political Thought and Statecraft in India and China. The full text is available for download here; the Table of Contents is below.

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Getting Chinese-language books outside of East Asia

A colleague wrote to me asking about acquiring Chinese-language books (he was asking especially about Zhu Xi, but it’s a more general issue) from within the US. Until the pandemic I travelled often enough to China, Taiwan, or Hong Kong that I was able to pick things up there, and have never ordered from the US. Does anyone have good (or bad) experiences to share?

Upcoming 四海为学 “Collaborative Learning” Seminars and Lectures

The 四海为学 “Collaborative Learning” project, an online philosophy lecture and seminar series promoting learning across cultures, will host three seminars and four lectures in the next few months.

Our seminars include:

“The Philosophy of Guo Xiang” Led by: Paul D’Ambrosio, East China Normal University. Taking place January 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25; from 22:00-23:30 Beijing Time.

“Confucianism Today” Led by: Robert A. Carleo III, East China Normal University. Taking place March 7, 9, 14, 16, 21, 23, 28, 29; from 20:30–22:30 Beijing time

“The Bad Confucius” Led by: Dimitra Amarantidou, University of Macau. Taking place May 9, 11, 16, 18, 23, 25, 29, 31; from 21:00-22:30 Beijing Time

For more information, including links to the meetings, see https://www.sihaiweixue.org/seminars

Our lectures include:

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